April 24, 2024

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[THE INVESTOR] Samsung Electronics has sprinted ahead of rival Intel as the world’s largest chipmaker for the first time posting record profits in the second quarter.

The US chipmaker, which had reigned supreme for the past 24 years, posted US$14.8 billion revenue and US$3.8 billion operating profit during the April-June period, increasing by 9 percent and 190 percent, respectively, but that was still short of preventing Samsung from taking away the US firm’s crown as the top semiconductor firm.

Samsung’s operating profit, at 8.3 trillion won (US$7.40 billion), is nearly double that of Intel, while the Korean tech giant’s revenue came in at 17.58 trillion won.

The profit margin of Samsung’s chip business stood at a whopping 45.7 percent, compared to Intel’s 25.7 percent.

Market analysts said the soaring demand of DRAM and solid-state drives helped Samsung leap to the top. They anticipated that the Korean tech behemoth’s chip business will further grow thanks to the increasing demand for memory chips, which play a core role in servers and mobile devices.

“The prices of DRAM and NAND flash memory chips will likely continue to rise in the third quarter this year, and Samsung is expected to earn 9.5 trillion won operating profit in the third quarter,” said Kwon Seong-ryul, an analyst from Dongbu Securities.

By Kim Young-won (wone0102@heraldcorp.com)